Performance “Voodoo Funk”

You are invited to the performance of African vinyl collector Frank Gossner (a.k.a Voodoo Funk) to Hanoi. He’ll have seven years of African funk in his luggage ready to educate Vietnam about the exceptional, yet unheralded, music being made in the world’s most underprivileged continent. He’ll be selecting danceable African cuts that can’t be heard anywhere else on the planet, only at ATK.

Frank’s African adventure began in 2005 when he followed his passion and curiosity to West Africa. Since then he’s travelled extensively through Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria building one of the most unique collections of rare African vinyl in the world. It wasn’t easy, Frank has fled martial law and civil uprisings, been stranded in the bush, robbed at machete-point, followed old sailors around downtown Freetown, fished records out of insect nests and travelled thousands of kilometres on dirt roads – all in search of rare grooves.

His extraordinary journeys weren’t lost on those who read his record digging road trip adventures on his critically acclaimed blog. With more than 40 one-hour-long mp3 mixes and countless photographs and record cover scans, the site is a treasure trove for vinyl and funk enthusiasts. The blog brought him to the attention of documentary film maker Leigh Iacobucci who filmed his adventures to create the documentary Take Me Away Fast, an exploration of passion, loving music, meeting people and finding something.

Voodoo Funk will be playing African music you are guaranteed to have never heard before. You can’t buy it a shop and you won’t find it online – unless Frank put it there! But obscurity doesn’t get in the way of fun, with 15 years’ experience selecting tracks for dancing crowds in New York and Berlin, Frank knows the ultimate measure of any night’s success is dancing feet.

CAMA will be screening Take Me Away Fast at ATK on Wed 17 Oct with all proceeds going to help fund Frank’s South East Asia tour. On Sat 20 Oct, Frank will be spinning live at ATK.

18 Nov – 18 Dec – The third exhibition of “Skylines with Flying People 3”, an interdisciplinary art project set out to portray the landscape of contemporary Việt Nam through the lens of local artists who were born and have grown up in the period of the economic reform (Đổi Mới)

Hanoi Grapevine is an important and active promoter of the arts in Vietnam. We provide bilingual content of high-quality art and culture happenings in the contemporary landscape of the country and offer reviews by interested, informed and opinionated commentators. We also organize events and the Grapevine Selection is a highlight.